


One Minute

by kiichu



Category: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: Drabble, Gen, References to 999, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-20 20:56:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiichu/pseuds/kiichu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here they were, chained to the sink. They'd survived a hell together before, but there was no escape this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Minute

"Dio!  _ **Dio**_!" she screams after the top-hatted young man, writhing from her position on the floor. "Wait! Come back!"

Tenmyouji shakes his head and grunts at his bloodied hand, resolve settling into his mind. She's been yelling for quite a while, and no one had come to their rescue. He has already started to fear the worst. "It's no use, Clover," he murmurs gruffly. "You know these walls are too thick."

Clover whips her head towards him, her expression panicked, and cries, "I know, but... but we can't just  _ **sit**_  here!"

He scoffs. "That's exactly what we're gonna do."

"But..." She wilts at his pessimism, her eyes slinking to the floor. "This... this can't be it. This can't be the end!" she whines, tears slipping freely down her cheeks.

The old man can't even fathom how a 19-year-old Clover appeared out of the blue only hours before, but he doesn't try to question it. He knows that  _ **that woman**_  is capable of amazing things - tricks and magic that would make any magician throw away his rabbit-filled hat. 

He's well aware that he's going to die. Being older, he doesn't regret much anymore. Yes, he wasted his life searching for someone who would never look his way, and he had done a few things that he wasn't particularly proud of ('grandpa videos' didn't pay for themselves, after all), but he can't declare that he regrets any of it. Because in the end, he found Quark, and he was able to save a little girl from a horrible fate.

Clover, however, has just started living. It isn't fair to her to die here, but he can still see it happening all the same.

_**"One minute until Ambidex Gates close."** _

The booming voice of the loudspeaker rings in his ears even after it finally pings away. "I'm sorry, Clover," he mumbles. "But I guess I owe you the whole truth now, huh?"

The pinkette looks his way once more; the tears haven't stopped falling. "...what do you want to tell me...?"

He chuckles. "It's Junpei."

Her eyes light up with disbelief, anger, and confusion all at once. "What...?" she breathes, "But that's... impossible...!"

"It seems like it, but here I am," he rasps. "We went through a Nonary Game together."

"I- you could've heard that from Alice! W-what happened in the Game? Tell me details,  _ **now**_!"

Tenmyouji nods and thinks for a moment. "There were seven others," he begins, "Well... after the first fifteen minutes, it became six."

"Anyone could guess that," she retorts in reply.

"Ace, Snake, Santa, June, Seven, Lotus."

The girl's face grew pale. "I - How could you know those names...?"

He smiles, softer this time. "Because I was there, as Junpei. Your brother, Snake, was trapped in a coffin for most of the Game."

"I've never told anyone about that," she whispers. He figures as much; no one liked to admit that their pompous older sibling was stuck in an enclosed space for nearly nine hours. 

"Junpei, why are you... old?"

Tenmyouji opens his mouth to reply, but a sharp, piercing pain to his wrist steals any words he had. He swears he feels the drug churning through his veins already.

 _Thanks, Hongou... old pal._  He thinks bitterly as his eyelids begin to droop.

"Clover..." he murmurs, tired eyes once more gazing towards her.

She has taken the form of a human-sized doll, completely still with her eyes gazing emptily ahead.

He brings his free hand over to her, not noticing the blood smearing across her leg until she is dragging her finger through it, spelling out "D-I-O".

"Clover, stay with me as long as you can. Hey..."

His gaze flickers around the room and finally comes to a stop on the sink pipe between the two of them. Ultimately, the thing that is damning them both to an arguably gentle death. 

"Look.."

He forces a small, weak chuckle to rumble through his throat and nods towards the sink. "Gimme a P... gimme an... I...." he begins, curling his lips to an exhausted smirk.

A tiny, hoarse voice sounds next to him.

"Gimme... a P.... and an...E..."

He smiles and closes his eyes, allowing his mind to slip under. "...what's...... that spell...?"

Through the darkness, the last thing he hears is a quiet, "......pipe..."

And he thinks...

_What the hell are we doing?_


End file.
